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Meditation Series – What Happens During Meditation?

Modern medicine does not say that meditation works. You won’t find a doctor that will prescribe meditation as the sole means of healing your illness in traditional medicine, anyway. Yet, meditation is something that doctor’s do tell you about in other ways.

For example, how many times has your doctor told you that stress was a problem in your health issue? Or, perhaps he told you of the need to relax more so that you can overcome your headaches, your pain, or your tension?

In your doctor’s words, he is encouraging you to clear your mind of the things you worry about and concentrate instead on relaxing. That is what meditation can do for you.Yet, the mechanics behind how meditation works is something completely different. Not many actually realize how meditation works or why it matters that they know why it works. You’ll learn both elements here.

In studies that have been done, there is evidence that meditation can produce a reaction in the body. It has been shown to provide a healthy state of relaxation. Physically, your body reacts in several ways.

1. Your breathing becomes regulated, smoother and deeper.
2. Your heart rate decreases which means your heart is beating slower.
3. It can help to decrease the amount of the stress hormone, called plasma cortisol that is produced by your body.
4. It can decrease your pulse rate.
5. It can increase a brain wave stimulation that causes you to relax. This is called your EEG or electroencephalograph alpha which is directly associated with the body’s ability to relax
6. Probably the most astonishing physical experience to the body is the decrease in your metabolic rate, or the rate at which your body takes fuel and burns it for energy. This rate seemed to have dropped by some 20 percent in those that had otherwise normal metabolic rates.

Yet, not just physical changes happen during meditation. In addition, your body enters into a state of profound rest, rest that goes beyond that of any other stage of consciousness you could be in.

During this time, your mind and your brain are extremely alert and in tune.This has been shown through medical experiments as well. Patients were told to meditate while their brain’s activity was monitored.

During these tests, there were indications that your brain was in a state called “restful alertness” where it was completely and extremely alert but calm and focused.